After busting my rump all week long, pulling 12+ hour days sitting here staring at my computer being pulled in sixty directions at once and the majority is customer service (80% of that thanks to the live customer support script I added which keeps me thinking I should make a pretty template for the chat room to make it more cozy, because I'm spending an awful lot of time in there) I am completely ready for a nice long day off. However, since it looks like that won't happen until Jevus finally comes back to take us all to be shooed away from the pearly gates, I'll have to settle for a nice long evening reading a book.

So last night as I was digging through a box of stuff I had packed, I came across this book which I didn't even know I owned. Campy Sci-Fi novels aren't something I generally buy so I was surprised I had it, but lacking anything better to read (also known as being too lazy to drag out any more boxes to find something) I sat down and read it.

It was interesting, it definitely made for an amusing evening of reading for sure. Now all I need is one to read tonight. Hopefully I'm done with work before it gets too late. Once it starts getting dark outside I start getting really drained. I've been pulling 6 to 6 (and sometimes 10) nights alot lately, and it's just going to get more busy, but this is alright because 'more busy' not only equals bad grammar, but it also means that I'll have money to pay off all those friends of Guido's who just don't love me like he does.

For those of you looking (like I was) for the translated lyrics to Cho (Fatal Frame 2's theme song), here they are. Got to love it.

Just because I decided to be a sheep for a minute, I retook this test I took ages ago:




Why do I feel oddly ashamed?

For those of you who are currently looking for a Live Help program that won't cost you an appendage and your first born child, I give you (a link to) Help Center Live. Not only does it cover Live Support, it also has e-mail support, FAQ support, and trouble tickets. It has everything alot of those programs are charging $300.00+ for. Top it all off? It's free.

Holy jezum crow.

The program installed without a hitch on one of my business sites (something which never happens and was terrifying in itself) and the next release (which comes out in Feb) includes fun things to make it more easily customizable and efficient. So, if you've been looking for one, there you go.

Also, my wickedly naughty cat, Ewok, who's been missing for the past five days and presumed kidnapped has returned home. I suppose I can put in that call to tell the National Guard they don't have to come out here now.

According to 'people who know' 23 is some sort of odd turning point year for me based on my numerological score or some woohoo type stuff I didn't quite get. Although numerology fascinates me, it also bares a vague resemblance to math (I think it's the numbers) and so I have a heck of a time not behaving like a distracted two year old when someone is explaining to me how it works.

Although, I have to agree with them, it's only been two months since my birthday and it's already been a weird year, but not in a bad way, and that's alright with me.

I'm hoping though that this year turns out better then last year, which was just one of those years that make you rig an eye poker with cotton on the pointy end so you can have the glee of poking yourself in the eye repeatedly without the pain. It was a frustrating year. A year that oddly resembled a paper-cut, but I giggled at it and moved along.

This year I decided will be good. Really good. Really really really good. I've got loads of nifty (and sometimes slightly naughty) stuff lined up for the next eleven months, and hopefully it all turns out....well, good.

Maybe even sailor good.

Today I officially unofficially officially turned in my apartment keys. I had over a week ago, but my landlady called with another one of her 'could you for me' and I got conned into repicking up the keys and not only bug bombing the apartment for her, but cleaning it again and sorting and cleaning out all her ruined items (Probably.....40 boxes and a dozen bags of stuff, mainly books that were moldy and sogging) that got wet from the water heater that she stored in the garage while I lived there.

I've been moved out for nearly two weeks now and she's still calling Multiple times daily and taping notes to the front door of the apartment when I haven't been there in almost two weeks. I'm glad to be out of there and done with it.

Oh well, my next place will be better anyway.

Since February is fast approaching (the quickness of this is startling) it's time for a new layout here.

I expect good things from all of you in my mailbox before the first. Chop, chop.

When I got home from my long morning of running around like a headless chicken doing errands I made tea in this huge 64 ounce insulated mug thing I've got that I normally use for water.

Now, two and a half hours later it's still hot.

I love this thing.

I got a Paperwhite kit for Christmas. Although some people I'm sure would think it was a present only a few steps up from a Chia Pet, I thought it was really cool. They got planted and are currently over the kitchen sink in two pretty pots. They've even started to sprout already.

Once they root I'll move them to my desk, and then in a few weeks it will be like Springtime next to my lamp, but without the bugs and Daylight Savings Time.

I dragged my zombie like carcass to a party last night. (Happy Birthday Joe) It's the first time in a good month that I've done any sort of socializing that didn't have children or work or a current event in my life attached to it. It was a shame that I was too out of it to really enjoy it. I spent most of the night trying not to fall asleep or drool on the person sitting next to me.

I managed a bit of yacking it up with a fellow author, who hinted that she's got a new book on the way, but wouldn't really tell me more then that. I ment to ask her about her writers group, to see if I could still get back in it (I was invited once before but never made the meetings). I know that she was involved with two others one critique and one normal type writers group. I'd rather be a part of the latter then the first, I'm not quite prepared enough with any manuscripts to have them blown to bits. Unfortunately, my moronic-like state left me being a total airhead and I didn't remember about wanting to ask her until I was halfway home.

Other then that I mostly wandered aimlessly and stared off into space. Ate some good food, had a piece of cake (Which is surprising to me, because I never eat it), listened to people say some really touching things and cry. Luckily, I was too night-of-the-living-deaded out to cry. All in all, it was a nice quiet evening.

Today I plan on doing one last clean of the apartment (sans garbage in the garage that doesn't belong to me. I refuse to pay the money for a dumpster to throw away things that were ruined when the water heated exploded that belong to the owner. I'm nice, and I feel horrible about leaving garbage in the apartment, even if it doesn't belong to me, but my niceness in this situation is slowly evaporating) and returning the keys. Then I think I might just spend the rest of the day goofing off, maybe I'll make a new layout for IBOM or just be completely irresponsible. It is, after all, Saturday.

I found my frog charm bracelet last night. I know it's boring blog material, but nobody reads this anyway, so what does it matter what I post here?

A few months back I thought for sure that it got accidentally thrown away, and I was developing a twitch at the idea of having to rebuild it from scratch. So, off an on I spent some time surfing charm shop webpages, visiting bead shops and watching E-bay to see how much it was going to cost me to remake the bracelet. Last time, for those who care, it ran me about fifty dollars.

This time, from all the prices, it looked like it was going to run me around seventy. Seventy dollars for fifteen charms and a bracelet! That's nearly eight dollars a charm. For charms that half are smaller then your finger nail. It's disgusting, especially since I used to work in jewelry and know exactly how much all those charms really cost the sellers to purchase. Making a profit is one thing, ripping people off is another.

Lucky for me, last night while I was unpacking a box I found the bracelet. In the same sandwich bag it was in when I lost it. (It was in one, because one of the charms had pulled off it's jump ring while I was at a meeting and I had to stick it in something so I could fix it later. Yes, I have baggies in my purse, no it's not because I keep drugs in them. I keep those in a lipstick case.) Now, I can fix the charm and be on my merry way. Now, I can start a new charm bracelet. I'm thinking, something cute. I have a frog one (this one), a sesame street one, and a moose one (yes, mooses, I couldn't help it, the charms were too darn cute). I built those ones, I have my eye on a pre-built zodiac one, but I'm not sure I'll get it.

Whee! You can never have too many, you know.

Since I'm bored, here are all the charms that are currently on the frog bracelet. This is not including the gemstone drops I've got on there, I can't find those anywhere else. Those deffinatly would have been a pain in the butt, I would have had to order stuff to make them.

Froggy on the Moon

Frogs playing leapfrog

Frog on a lilly pad

Frog on a rocking horse

Just a cute froggy

I also have some others including two frogs hugging and a frog holding a teddy bear. Yes, I'm obsessed, but I can't help it, the cuteness, it's blinding.

"Mommy, when I grow up, I want to be a professional mover."

I'm almost all done moving. The only things currently left are large piles of things that don't belong to me in the garage. The more I stare at it, the more I'm convinced it's secrectly breeding when I turn my back. It's trying to breed enough to reach the step and get me. I think it overheard me mention the words 'trip to the dump' while I was wildly gesturing at it through the garage windows.

If I don't come back today, you know why.

So far I've managed to pin three owners of the Stuff in My Garage That Doesn't Belong To Me™ to come and get their stuff, or at least tell me what to do with their stuff. Unfortunatly other peoples things still remain, including the Landladies (whom, really was very illegal to store things in my garage) who asked me to just see if I could store it in someone elses apartment, which is something I'm not going to do.

I think I'm just going to have to leave it there, since it belongs to her. This eliminates nearly half of the stuff in the garage. This is wonderful, because it means that I'll be completely finished a good two or three hours earlier then I thought I would be. That is, of course, if I don't get smothered by disgruntled yard sale junk first.

Anyone have the translated lyrics for Tsukiko Amano's song 'Cho'? It's the theme from Fatal Frame 2 and I'm completely addicted to it's J-poppy goodness. However, I never got a chance to beat the game so I didn't get to see the translated subtitles of the song at the end.

If you haven't heard it, you can go to this site and it loads as the background music. It matches the game very well, and it's disgustingly catchy, even if it's in Japanese.

For those of you who are wondering, I managed to get to Chapter Seven. That means I had a couple chapters left before I beat the game, which makes me sad, because I never get to beat anything before the PS2 is removed from my house.

So, here are a couple questions answered for you and some of my mindless comments:

* No it's not scary, but there are a couple of spots where I giggled because something startled me. It's good clean creepy lights off after dark fun. Don't be a wuss, play it.

* It's gorgeous as all get out. Even if you don't like horor genre games, it's worth picking up just because it's so dang pretty.

* The ghosts in this one are harder, mainly because they show up in groups insted of just one at a time. Since they're harder in this game (although some people disagree with me on this, because of the way the camera works differently) they show up less often. I've heard people say they repop, but I've never had any repop on me. (and trust me, I spent a heck of alot of time wandering around the same areas) In the last game by the time I was finished I had shot more then 300 ghosts, in this one, by the time I finally had to let it go (crying and snivvling the whole time) I had only shot around 35. Not including door or unhostile ghosts. See, lots less.

* The storyline is pretty good and it's got a couple of nods to the first game that I really appriciated. Plot, got to love it.

It's good fun, and I suggest you go down and pick up a copy and give it a whirl. I actually rented mine, and I still have it. Thanks to the weather, I haven't been able to return it when it when it was due. Isn't that just the way it goes? I don't have the PS2 anymore and I've still got the game and I can't play it.

Mean, just plain mean.

Well, the lovely odd weather continues with three to five inches of ice on the ground for the last two days. It's like the whole neighborhood is my personal skating rink. Anyone want to race around the block?

Unfortunatly, along with this lovely looking 'Silver Thaw' comes fun things like power outages and million mile an hour falling shards of ice that have it out to puncture me in the top of the head. Luckally though the power is back on, and so is my internet connection. I don't much care about the `Net, I was more worried about the frost that was forming on the stuff inside my house because nobody had power.

It is pretty at night though, with the moon shining down on it. Everything looks like crystal. There is another weather system moving in tonight, that is supposed to bring rain. Hopefully rain of the non-freezing sort. The kind that won't knock out my power, or me if I cross the street.

I've been getting nudges from a couple friends about moving to Florida, and believe me, I've been thinking about it. I don't think my fingers will ever thaw, and if they do, I'll probably cry from the terrible burning needle-like pain that will follow.

Kelly is back posting to her blog! Hurray! I really did miss you posting, and I'm glad you're going to be posting lots and lots more. Kelly and her husband James are doing the Discovery Weight Challenge, and I've tossed around the idea of doing it myself, but the fact that the nearest place to do it is in Portland and I have no car is a serious lump in the road. So I think insted I'll just be doing what I'm doing, but more often, and posting more here and in CTF about the whole weight thing. Promise, post more...must....

With the weather the way it has been, digsusting, and the holidays and this gunk with moving, I just haven't been walking and dancing like I normally do. I've got to start doing it again though, however, I think since there is currently a blizzard warning for my area, walking will have to wait. We'll make up for it by adding an extra 40 minutes of being a klutzy dancin' foo a day. Sound good? Good.

My hair froze on the way to work today, it was like straw. How cool is that?

They're closing schools four hours early, and telling people if they have to work past three to get off early because they're expecting a huge storm tonight.

Weather in Oregon, is as usual, very odd.

It started a bit over a week ago. Snowed over night (when they said it wouldn't, of course) a good four inches and over the next two days melted and turned into nasty ice. Then, when it was about completely gone, it snowed again, another five inches, and melted and turned into more nasty ice. Then, when it rained, and was about completely gone by yesterday, it started snowing this morning.

The serious side in me takes over for a sixth of a second, stares out the window and thinks "I'm not going to be able to get anything done in this."

The normal me, the happy, the silly, dorky me. The real me. The one that can make the best situation out of anything, takes it all in stride, and sees the humor in it. The one that has no problem with moving boxes in the heavy falling snow with six inches on the ground because it will be a great challenge and probably quite fun. The me that is perfectly fine with 9 P.M. snowball fights that span the whole neighborhood. The me that is cool with not being able to go anywhere because the UPS man can get anywhere and she'll just order her office supplies off the `net and becides, UPS guys are usally cute anyway. The me some people seem to want so badly to have me pack away in a box and put up on a high shelf somewhere and never take out again because they believe that me being honest and true to who I really am isn't 'adult' or 'responsible' enough because I'm not like them, because I deal with my situations differently then they do, and for me it gets things done, so what should it matter how it gets there?

That one? The real me? She stares out the window, giggles, finds her gloves, and goes outside.